▪ I. blotting, vbl. n.
(ˈblɒtɪŋ)
[f. blot v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb blot; concr. a blot, smear, obliteration.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 41 Blottynge, oblitteracio. 1542–3 Act 34–35 Hen. VIII, i, The blotting or cutting out of anie quotacion. 1656 Artif. Handsomeness (1662) 47 The most accurate pencils were but blottings which presumed to mend Zeuxis or Apelles works. 1791 Boswell Johnson (1831) I. 350 Blottings, interlineations, and corrections. 1842 Browning Waring iii, There were certain jottings, Stray-leaves, fragments, blurrs and blottings. |
2. blotting out: obliteration of writing, etc.; also, effacement, destruction, annihilation.
| 1808 Syd. Smith Plymley's Lett. Wks. 1859 II. 159/2 [No] one of his conquered countries the blotting out of which would be as beneficial to him. 1861 Mill Repr. Govt. 137 The virtual blotting out of the minority is no necessary or natural consequence of freedom. 1879 Calderwood Mind & Brain 306 A blotting out of impressions. |
3. techn. Material for blotting-paper; also, the finished article.
| 1872 Eng. Mech. 15 Nov. 228/3 [To] give to used..or dry..blotting its original absorbent power. 1880 J. Dunbar Pract. Papermaker 72 For pink blottings furnish two thirds of white cottons and one third of turkey reds. Ibid., In this way the author has made blotting which was considered a good article. 1920 Printers' & Stat. Yr. Bk. 13 Calf Papers, Blottings. Enamelled Blottings. |
4. Comb., as blotting-book, a book consisting of leaves of blotting-paper for drying the ink of letters and the like; also, a rough note-book in which entries of transactions are made as they occur, a waste-book; blotting-case, a case or cover enclosing blotting-paper; blotting-pad, a pad consisting of a number of sheets of blotting-paper joined at the edges, used for the same purpose as a blotting-book. Also blotting-paper.
| 1598 Florio Worlde of Wordes 39/3 Bastardolo, a blotting booke, a daie booke, a house booke to write in euery thing. 1848 H. R. Forster Stowe Catalogue 28, Item 453 A blotting book. 1857 W. Collins Dead Secret (1861) 21 She signed these lines with her name,—pressed them hurriedly over the blotting-pad. 1874 H. H. Cole Catal. Ind. Art S. Kens. Mus. 321 A blotting-book cover. |
Sense 4 in Dict. becomes 5. Add: 4. Biochem. The technique or process of blotting proteins or nucleic acids.
| 1979 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. LXXVI. 4351/2 The blotting procedure removed all protein from the gel. 1983 J. R. S. Fincham Genetics vii. 186 This is a blotting procedure whereby a pattern of DNA bands in an agarose gel is transferred to a nitrocellulose sheet after first denaturing the DNA with alkali. 1989 Molecular & Cellular Probes III. 319 A new ultrasensitive bioluminescence-enhanced detection system for protein blotting has been developed. |
▪ II. ˈblotting, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That blots or smears.
| 1828 Lamb Corr. ccxviii. 522 The blotting pen. |
Hence ˈblottingly adv.
| 1653 Gauden Hierasp. 248 That pen, which now writes blottingly. |